Congrats guys, good effort. . . .
Looks like you also stumbled into some 50th Anniversary terrain as well.

That first pitch was first done in 63, as two pitches, The Odyssey, belaying at the tree at the top of the crack. So volleys, waist belays, slings and pitons, etc was the climbing tech.
At first I thought maybe the pin may have been the belay, but it seems it was placed by Regan and Ryan to protect the initial move onto the face, to avoid tumbling back down the first pitch (not advised). Then up to the ledge, that Paul is at in the third photo, to belay again before heading up and left from there. Im guessing the just did not use much pro at all.

Went up and quickly checked it all out the other day. Pin looks still pretty good for 50 years if it is the original. And there is a good wire , and small cam placement, in the same break just round the corner, and some other options up a little bit . . .

The crack to the right is quite nice, so had to have a play while I was there. Cynic Solo, (Project) 18 M1 to halfway point due to rope issues, so might be 20ish, bomber rock and gear, jump on. Also looked at the corner to roof on the right side of the alcove, which looks like fun as well, Cynics Divided ~23??.

Paul - we should get together and do some climbing, there are a few other obscure lines there to be done as well as a few other new options. And also have a few other obscure routes that may interest you elsewhere . . .

On 10/08/2013 drdeviousii wrote:>You are about 30 years too late to be writing up failed attempt of a shortcrack half way to nowhere & then grading it 18M1. Is this a fking joke?> Get a grip dooood

Whatever . . . Would you prefer I went all modern? Ring bolted it and claimed it as a closed project? Merely reporting how I went....

Anyway got back to it briefly with some actual rope this time, aid-soloed it to the ledge, set a bit of a belay rapped back down and freed all the moves with some rests, quite technical climbing as the crack is bit thin for fingers, but it takes bomber small cams and wires . ..

Inspired by this TR, Carrie and I climbed the Iliad today. It was really enjoyable, despite the bushwacking required on pitch 1. The ramp on the third pitch was particularly fun!

Carrie is just learning to place trad, so she lead the first pitch. Easy climbing with lots of bomber protection possibilities makes this pitch a good one for novice leaders. I lead the next two pitches (I also linked p3-4). I would not recommend the second pitch for novice leaders, as the protection is spaced and a bit tricky to find, particularly early on. The piton doesn't protect against a fall onto the ledge, as it's only 1.5m or so off the deck. I clipped the piton and backed it up with a microwire for some mental protection, pulled a hardish move to reach the left wall, and found good pro a few meters up. This wouldn't be particularly scary for you experienced chockstone tradsters, but a novice could easily have a nasty groundfall onto pointy rocks. The third pitch was absolutely fantastic, with varied and unique climbing with some exposure.

It's certainly not a four-star classic, but the Iliad is still good fun. Get on it.

This morning I managed to free the tips crack that you can see in some of Neil's photos, for the First Ascent of Trojan (The Illiad Pitch 2 variant) at ABOUT 23. I'd seen that Macca estimated the grade at 21-23 on TheCrag, and thought he was being a bit soft because somewhere in my mind I thought it was a FINGER crack, and didn't LOOK that hard.

Turns out it was desperate, super strenuous climbing on tricky gear. Very sporty, not at all like a conventional trad climb. I'd budgeted 2 hours to climb Pitch 1 of The Illiad (to get to the crack), send the crack (maybe 2nd shot if it turned out to be harder than I thought) and finish up P2 of The Illiad, then rap to the ground off Cynics United and head over to Bentrovato wall.

Well, 2 hours because 3.5 hours, and I only managed to send it third shot after coming up with some new beta for the crux after failing the link on the final move (2nd shot). Considering its only 10m of variant start to P2 of The Illiad, its almost crazy that it was such a battle. Suffice to say, when I finally got to Bentrovato it was very much in the sun. =)

Some photos of the ascent can be found below. Photos 2 and 3 show the sort of strenuous climbing required (with super slippery feet) and a damp flared crack in the top section).

Cool Dude,
Well done, it does have some tricky sequences doesn't it - took me a few shots to sort that top bit as well - theres not many options is there . . .

Similarly thought at first that it should be easier but its that little bit thinner then it looks, and then after having a play and getting it semi- sorted I figured about 21-23 would be about right; it seemed like it would possibly be a difficult true onsight but yet seemed that it could be surprisingly not too bad once you had sequences worked out. A fun little number, there is also a corner and rootlet to the right that I had a play on that should go on trad as well . ..

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the grade if you (or someone else) repeats it. I was hesitant to give it 23, but I just can't imagine having worked so damn hard on any other trad 21/22s I've done, especially for something so short. Also, the gear -though not particularly hard to place with well-established technical stances- does require a certain precision to make it fall-worthy from the top of the crux.

The consideration, however, is that the top part of the crack was quite slimey (it had green slime at the back of it, which made my hands green every time I took them out. If the crack ever actually dries out properly, it is probably easier with better friction.

I found the crucial crux footer on it to be incredibly slippery, and most of my falls were from my foot just randomly slipping off the footer and sending my flying. My belayer got used to hearing a sudden: "S#!t, I'm off!"... *metallic crash as I fall on my wire-nest again*...

I had a look at the corner crack right of Trojan (the line you're talking about, I think), and kind of thought "surely it must have been climbed already". It could make an interesting trad continuation to the first pitch of Cynics United (which also goes on gear, and in a similar style).

Just make it ~23 - Classic grading . . .
I think most people would find it a tricky onsight, and things usually feel easier after a few shots . . .
Don't recall the footer being particularly slippery but certainly very body-position dependent to maintain contact . . .
Will have to get out sometime when my shoulder is better . . .
Cheers